| Abstract: | Cleanroom technology is central to high tech manufacturing. Its development stems from the convergence of needs in several fields of manufacturing, health care, and military requirements. Small‐sized mechanical and electro‐mechanical devices brought problems with dirt and dust to the forefront, particularly during World War II. High efficiency air filters developed during that conflict rapidly commercialized after the war, and found broader applications. As electronics became a military and commercial staple, filtered and conditioned air, controlled procedures and behaviors, employee training, special uniforms, carefully selected construction design and materials, and physical isolation from other parts of the manufacturing facilities came together in the earliest clean rooms. Diversity in practices drove the demand for standards and fostered further developments. By the 1960s contamination control emerged as a distinct field, with clean room technology at its core. Thus established, the benefits of clean manufacturing spread to other fields and industries. The convergence of needs which underlay earlier developments remained an important developmental dynamic in contamination control. |
